A 47-year-old woman and a man thought to be her lover are being held responsible for the death of her late husband, police in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, said Monday.

The victim, 53, was found dead on April 22, two months in to his first marriage.

Autopsy revealed he had died of a nicotine overdose. Sleep-inducing zolpidem was also found in his system.

In the following investigations, the police learned that the first action the deceased man’s wife took upon discovery of his abrupt death was calling a funeral hall for procedure details. She did not contact the police or the emergency medical service as is normally expected of people who face the sudden death of a family member.

Her actions, according to the police, were “sufficiently suspicious” and that it was “as if she had been waiting for it to happen.”

Following her husband’s death, the woman took the late man’s assets worth 1 billion won ($895,000) and put it in her name.

She also tried to collect the death insurance money worth 80 million won ($71,000), however, the insurance company withheld the settlement based on the allegations of murder against the woman.

Four months after the man’s death, the Namyangju police said on Monday they had recently retrieved a closed circuit TV recording of the couple returning home on the fateful day around 7 p.m.

Due to work-related reasons the couple only reunited at weekends. On the day which was Friday, they had dined out for the occasion together with the woman’s daughter from her first marriage.

Roughly four hours after returning home, at around 11:10 p.m., her husband was found dead in his room.

In the police interrogation the suspect testified that the man had had beer before retreating to his room and that she found him dead when she went in to the room later to give him his eye drops.

The police said she then immediately dialed a funeral hall to make enquiries regarding funeral procedures.

The hall advised her to contact the police first, after which she reported the case to the authorities.

The autopsy showed the suspect’s testimony that her husband had drunk beer to be false. No alcohol was detected in the deceased’s body.

The cause of his death, as determined by the National Forensic Service, was nicotine overdose.

The husband was not a smoker, and his work colleagues added questions to his sudden death as the late man was known for his healthy habits.

Prosecutors so far have tracked down the case to a man named Hwang, 46, who was intimately acquainted with the woman. 

Hwang is accused of purchasing large amounts of liquid nicotine, some of which is thought to have been used in the killing.

The woman and Hwang were arrested on Aug. 19 on homicide charges, which both of them deny.

They are exercising their right to remain silent to police questions regarding their relationship.

As for the nicotine purchase, Hwang is reiterating that he was trying to switch to electronic cigarettes.

The police are currently trying to discern how the deceased took the lethal dose of nicotine.


By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)